Growing an abundant garden, wherever you grow
I receive lots of comments about how people wish that they were able to garden, or how they don’t have a green thumb, and similar things. Being someone who rents my home and has had to move around a lot, I’ve had all types of gardens. So I thought I’d share some ideas on how you can have an abundant garden no matter where you are.
Steps to having an abundant garden:
Start simple. Often times when we decide to start a garden we want to get ALL the seeds and grow all the things. That can be overwhelming and unrealistic for lots of reasons. So start with a handful of things, depending on the space you have to grow in will determine how many things you can grow. If you’re in an apartment you may only have a balcony or small porch to grow on, so you’ll need pots. Consider how much space you have for pots, to determine how many you can realistically fit AND care for. If you have a yard to work with then you can consider how much space you want to devote to your garden.
Pick seeds you’ll actually use. So often people immediately start buying lots of herbs. I guess it’s because it’s supposed to be easier. But if you don’t actually use those herbs then it’s not realistic. So think about what you eat a lot of. In our family we eat tons of tomatoes, melons, peppers, etc. So that’s what we started with. We also like to try at least a couple new things. I used to think I didn’t like eggplant, until we started growing them ourselves. Now that’s one of our main staples.
Make sure that the growing space is ample (pot, garden plot, container, whatever you’re using). Your new plant babies need lots of root space. You may think it’s a small herb or a small plant, but they’re only small because you’re keeping them small. Let them stretch and grow. I grow a lot of my medicinal herbs at home, so they’re in pots because we rent. I tend to get huge clay pots for them so that I can get small “bushes” or put multiple herbs in one pot.
Treat the plants how they’d be treated in nature. If you read seed packets you’ll see all kinds of instructions on distancing, sun, etc. I only pay attention to the sun and temperature mostly. The temperature is important because depending on which zone you live in will determine when it’s hot, what kind of sun you get, etc. That will determine if you’re plants are actually a summer or winter plant. Living in Arizona my planting seasons are way different than someone in the Northeast. Once I determine which season to plant I think about how much I actually want of each plant. If I’m trying something new, like last year’s tobacco, I may only want a couple plants. If it’s something we eat a ton of, like okra, we’re going to want like ten plants. Something I always ignore is the spacing. My husband used to be super rigid aobut trying to do “correct” spacing, but I told him, if these plants were growing in the wild they wouldn’t have a ruler determining where they can allow their seeds to fall. Instead I think about how big the plant gets, so google beforehand how big it can get before planting if you don’t know, and then determine spacing on that. Big things like okra or cotton I put about a foot or foot and a half apart. Things like peppers I put like four inches apart. When we started doing it my way, our garden blew up. The reason, I think, is because putting them closer together allowed them to support and protect one another. Then I minimize how much I mess with them. In our house we eat lots of eggs and bananas so we save them up and make banana tea and egg shell powder that we sprinkle whenever we have a lot. No set times. Just frequently. When we harvest and we see dead leaves or whatever we just throw them back in the garden. Weeds we throw OUTSIDE of the garden. I personally don’t care if they chopped up in compost, I don’t want rogue roots finding a home. But I don’t prune, And I only weed things that are actually harmful. But if you pack your garden it also helps minimizes the amount of weeds that come up.
Determine where to start your seeds. When starting seeds, if the seeds are itty bitty, then we always start in starter pots in the greenhosue. You can do these indoors in a window, or even a mini indoor greenhouse. If the seeds are larger, beans, melons, etc. they are sturdy enough that you put them directly in the ground.
Watering. I think the biggest mistake people make in growing plants in general is that they over water. Starting your seeds they will need more water. The pots are smaller, and the seeds need the moisture to get going. But once they’re big enough they don’t need tons of water. Your soil should usually be moist, but not damp. It’s ok to let some things dry a little. Something that people don’t realize when planting home gardens, if you are constantly watering your plants, they will have weak roots. The way the roots work, is that they grow by stretching searching for water, etc. But if you are constantly watering on the surface the roots stay short, because they don’t have to look for water. This is why whole trees will fall. In fact if you grow peppers and they’re not spicy, it’s because they didn’t struggle enough. They need to fight a little, peppers have spicy personalities, treat them as such. If you’re growing in ground I highly suggest drip irrigation, and lots of mulch or straw when you live somewhere hot like Arizona. The mulch will keep the moisture in the ground. And make sure you water the soil, not the leaves. Watering leaves can cause damage to your plants. If it’s too cold they’ll freeze, and if it’s too hot, they’ll burn.
Get local seeds when possible. Local seeds meaning seeds from your zone or region. The reason is that you already know they can grow in your climate. So before you go online and start buying seeds from some of the big name seed sellers, check your area. Check libraries, many public libraries have started seed libraries, you can’t get more local than that. If you don’t have a seed library, check local nurseries, etc. If you do need to buy seeds from elsewhere, read what their natural climate is like to see if it’s compatible. I live in Arizona, I’m never going to try to grow bananas or mangoes, even though it’d save me so much money. Growing things that aren’t meant for your area will require so much more effort, and in some cases, a lot of water. That’s too much work. For me, it’s about minimizing my need to go to the store, so if I grow 90% of my produce, I can now spend that on mangoes and bananas.
Ok back to treating the plants like they’re in nature. I am a firm believer in just letting plants do what they’re going to do. So this is another reason why growing in the right season and local seeds is so important. We grow at a community garden where we rent a plot. Many of the others around us cover their plants when frost comes or too much sun. (A lot of them do sell at farmers’ markets so that’s partly why.) I don’t do that. To me, winter plants are winter plants for a reason, and summer plants are summer plants for a reason. So I just let the plants that will survive surive and the ones that don’t we let them go too. Sometimes you just have to adjust when you plant things. We have found different beans and our peas are doing much better now during winter than they did in the spring. And our eggplants and bitter ball tend to flourish near the end of summer into later fall rather than in the summer. Allowing the plants to do what they’re going to do allows you to adjust your planting times and see when is actually the best time to grow. This is something to consider especially with the changes stemming from climate change. What worked 50 years ago, doesn’t work now.
The things I think that have the biggest impact on my garden? Build a relationship with your plants/ garden. I always play music and talk to my plants. It’s been really interesting, each season our garden has wanted different music. Last summer it was very 70s, winter was 90s R&B, right now we’ve got some alternative/ indie soul/ R&B. This is all about building a relationship with your plants. Sometimes your plants die because you have exactly zero connection to what you’re trying to grow. As our family started growing our ancestral foods more and more, our garden flourished exponentially. Our okra plants last year were about 12 feet tall. The first year I grew cotton they were only a couple feet tall, last year they HUGE. I had no idea they could get so big. I firmly believe it’s because my relationship with those plants grew. I studied them, learned how maximize their uses, and so they began to feel much more comfortable in my garden. Our first year in our current location we almost only had sunflowers. Most of the other things didn’t really take, or if they took they were eaten by local wildlife. But if you don’t build any kind of connection with the plants you’re trying to grow, they won’t thrive. And I’ve seen plants that I used to care for and talk to and love on thrive, and then almost immediately die when I neglect them f or any number of reasons.
Harvesting. Harvest frequently, but never take too much. Harvesting frequently tells the plant, “Ok these things are being used, I’ll keep making them.” Not harvesting them tells the plants that no one wants it so they will immediately go to seed. When harvesting herbs you only want to take no more than a third at a time, and it’s starting to flower, you can harvest the flowers. Also, most flowers are edible as well (check before you eat, because some plants are poisonous when not harvested properly), so you can harvest them and eat them if you miss the window. If you have multiple plants you can allow one to go to seed so that you can harvest the seeds and use them for future planting, and that way you can enjoy your bounty and get your seeds at the same time. Also, the flowers are great for the bees!!
Other things we do:
We plant clusters, not so much rows.
We don’t till (anymore), we use a broadfork to open the soil, but that’s it. For me I found it stressful trying to rush the plants to finish producing in order to plant the next season. One day my husband heard, on NPR of course, how tilling has destroyed American agriculture. so once again he sided with me about something that intuitively didn’t make sense to me, and we decided to start planting to fill in spaces, rather than starting completely over each season.
We continually plant. When something dies, we plant something else in it’s place. Hopefully as the years go, this will allow us to have harvestable plants year round.
Leave roots of old plants, or put them in compost.
Companion planting. This can be about putting plants that nourish the soil for each other, but it’s also about which plants are sturdy and can withstand climbing plants, or which plants need, and which provide, shade, etc.
Garden intuitively. I really only read gardening books for getting to know the plant size, needs, and how to harvest and save the seeds. I don’t read for the how to garden. What’s funny is that I’ll tell my husband let’s do this thing, and he’s like but you’re supposed to do this other thing, and I convince him to do my thing. Then almost always he hears on NPR how the thing I said we should is actually much more beneficial. So if you’re trying to grow something, and you’re building that plant relationship, allow that to guide you on how to treat them.
If you try any of these things, let me know if it was helpful or if it was just helpful for me.
I would like to add that I think some people are better at edible gardens, and some people are better at house plants. I prefer edible gardens, because I generally prefer things that have multiple functions. I love and have some house plants, but I’m much more intenional and selective about those. So that’s something to consider.